Google Developer Podcast Episode Three: Mike Tsao on Google Gears

June 07, 2007


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We have published the third episode of the Google Developer Podcast, which delves into the world of offline applications, which is a hot topic right now. Let's get right to it.

Interview with Mike Tsao of the Google Gears team

We had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Tsao of the Google Gears team just before the Google Gears announcement went public.

It is a really fun chat, and lets us get into the mind of the Google Gears team a little.

In this interview you will learn:
  • What Google Gears is at a high level
  • How Google Gears came about
  • The parts and pieces of Google Gears
  • Information on the Datastore component (SQLite)
  • Information on the ResourceStore and ManagedResourceStore components
  • How the APIs look, and what should I be thinking about as I make my application offline
  • How to handle versioning with Google Gears applications
  • How the WorkerPool came about, and why we need to run JavaScript jobs in another thread
  • The code contributions made back to the SQLite codebase (e.g. MATCH() added)
  • The pain of finding the 90% case for syncing
  • Thoughts on how the client is getting smarter
  • How GWT supports Gears
  • How Google Reader is using Gears
  • How the UI fits in with offline behaviour
  • The open source vision for Gears
  • How other web platforms can access Gears
  • Future ideas for Google Gears

News

We also discussed a little of the other news that happened just before Developer Day.
You can download the episode directly, or subscribe to the show (click here for iTunes one-click subscribe).